As with PW 1.0, each monster in its family will fill a unique role that sets it apart from its family. PW 2.0 revives that concept, with a bit more flair.

As with PW 1.0, there are new monsters:

TonberriesLamiasWerewolvesAdamantoisesFlans

The following monsters have been removed from player access:

UribosTreantsMinotaursAhrimansBehemoths

Don't fret! Behemoths, Ahrimans, and Minotaurs will return as Lucavian allies, with buffed stats and skills.

Monsters in PW have high HP and can survive many blows if they aren't debuffed, making them potent threats. Some monsters can be jerks (like Werewolves that can use Taunt/Berserk and have Hamedo), while others focus on healing (such as Flanitors and their Rescue/Esuna abilities), and others who focus on buffing (such as the Adamantoise with Protect), and others on debuffing (such as Ghouls with Curse). Monsters are also gaining the added perk of Innate: Omnicasting (Non-charge), meaning their spells will be able to go off instantly, giving them a tactical edge.

In addition, Gerard the Beastmaster will also be returning in Chapter I, and he will be the sole source of getting monsters onto your team with his Tame ability. Having Gerard stand next to a monster will unlock their Beastmaster skill- often a potent spell that can greatly help, especially combined with innate Non-Charge.

Further details to come later in the week!

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

(Aw. I think I'm probably the only person to like Treants as well as to not be that enthused about Werewolves still. Oh well.)

Otherwise, it looks interesting, especially since we seem to be thinking along the same lines in Lucavi/Esper back-up for some monsters. It's rather amusing that, Minotaurs aside, we choose completely different ones though.

I do find it amusing that you're also taking at least Flanitor from FFXIII. Save for statuses and that one song, amusing Flan names were one of few other things that game seemed to do correctly.

Now I tempted to see which one of us can use or make the most humorous Flan name and/or make our Flans the most annoying.

I apologize for my lack of knowledge but, what do Flans really look like?

I'm not sure why you're apologizing, though I'll personally admit it's a bit weird for someone to on a Final Fantasy-related website to not know what Flans look like. Then again, I suppose Final Fantasy Tactics was basically the only FF game they weren't in, so it's a bit understandable.

"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts." - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Well now you know, Tactics has been the ONLY Final Fantasy game I played. Now go be weirded at me some more.

*Looks at Flan photos in wiki page* Ha it looks like the dessert turned into a nightmare XD

You should play more FF's, XII, V and IV Complete Collection are my favs, but every single one is good in general.

Its more than nightmare-ish when you dont have a mage or mp for your mage, in the main games they re only weak to the element of their color (like red flan is weak to fire) but in FFTA and FFTA2 they have an element of their color and are weak to the opposite element (Red Flan casts/absorbs Fire and is weak to Blizzard)

“ One of these days I’ll fly an airship of my own. I’ll be a sky pirate, free to go where I will. „ ~ Vaan

Also, hey, your post count finally broke the original Pokemon number. Not that post count matters; I just find it amusing given your user name.)

Yes, as Vaan and the page I linked to said: Flans tend to be physical tanks that are generally only really affected by magic and, I suppose, status. While we can't make them as absurdly tanky as usual--*pouts*--in FFT hacks due to there being no Defense stat, due to innates it's at least somewhat possible to achieve a vaguely accurate mirror of their level of usual annoyance.

Maybe Eternal's Flans will take some mercy on you guys in that regard though; mine certainly have no knowledge of mercy.

You should play more FF's, XII, V and IV Complete Collection are my favs, but every single one is good in general.

*looks at the Final Fantasy XIII series*

I...wouldn't go quite that far.

« Last Edit: June 13, 2015, 08:02:19 PM by The Damned »

"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts." - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

XIII and its sucessor have a nice gameplay and graphics (not sure about Lightning Returns), i dont like the characters and plot. But out of Fabula Nova Crystalis or w.e i sincerely liked Type-0, i just wish i could understand the japanese shit on my screen so i could play more properly and understand the plot.

“ One of these days I’ll fly an airship of my own. I’ll be a sky pirate, free to go where I will. „ ~ Vaan

PW and Jot5 are probably my favorite patches but i find PW more challenging: (i have no Gil Hell Yeah!! time to hunt human units and steal their stuff)elemental monsters are probably my favorite monsters in FF series specially because i like magic but i don't know if these will be elemental flans. But i love the idea of adding flans

and im going to miss the behemots 1 hiting my party :l also i find uribos and treants to be rare monsters not only on mods but on Vanilla too.removing Minotaurs its interesting, they are commonly seen on chapter 1 as they are common monsters, also wondering how this will affect the skill set of Gerard

still waiting for the day someone makes Cactuar sprite and make a party of 6 or 7 of them in zeklaus dessert using 1000 neddles that and Entite sprites from FFXII because those were my favorite monsters of the game loved to hunt them being low level <3

Flans will have Innate: Defense Boost (and maybe Always: Protect) to simulate their high physical Defense. That said, magic won't just flat out kill them. Each Flan has Slime, a 3 Range skill that deals damage and may inflict Silence, meaning they're still a threat. The Flanitor's Rescue heals its own HP and the HP of surrounding allies in a large AoE, whereas the regular Flan's Pacifying Shock can deal ranged damage and inflict Stop. They each have a way to shut down magic, meaning they can become very dangerous very quickly. They won't be elemental Flans, namely because I'm trying to cut down on elemental weaknesses on monsters in general to make them more appealing to use. That said, elemental weaknesses on monsters won't be totally gone because that's a ridiculous kick in the teeth to canon.

@Aiolon: Believe me. Behemoths will still one-shot your units if you let them get close without Protect/Defense Boost. It's also funny that you comment on Gil- the Gil System from PW 1.0 is staying in 2.0, but with a twist. If you want Gil, you'll need to find Denmada, which can be acquired by beating story battles or- newly- Treasure Hunting or beating Demi Marks- which was something I wasn't going to get into until later, but I may as well now.

Demi Marks are simply normal monster enemies, but they're Party Level +X, have ??? stats, and are Immortal status'd, meaning they're effectively bosses. Each monster in the game will have a Demi Mark version, and they can be rebattled. Demi Marks drop Denmada, meaning that if you find yourself short on Gil, you'll need to battle them to acquire more. This makes having Maintenance/Safeguard crucial- having broken gear will set you back a lot of precious Gil. That's why Maintenance/Safeguard will be only 50 JP on the Freelancer job. In battles against Snipers, it's very helpful.

On a related note, all Poaches are 100%, meaning monsters effectively only have one Poach now. Poaching is also a great way to get Gil as of Chapter III. Poaches are also the best way to handle Undead. Afterall, it can't get back up- and they always will- if they're removed from the field!

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

so the flans will act as buffers/debuffers well no problem i want to welcome those Bastards with rocks and sticks if necessaryDefense boost + Protect and the silcence debuff sounds like the perfect recipe for frustration but i'm sure i will have a lot of fun with them

as for Denmadas, im the kind of player that likes to have EVERY ITEM in the game so i'm always short of money and having to beat story line battles to earn some money was annoying to me and not enough considering the LARGE set of items in game so i could always make Ramza to waste months traveling to 1 place to another just to find a random party of humans to steal their items and wait for them to become chests or crystals to strengthen my units (yes i murder people for money that makes me a bandit but Ramza doesn't know so whatever). this had a lot of benefit later in game specially at chapter III because i poached to many monsters when i failed to get random battles with humans.the moment i saw i got 0 gil from my first random battle was priceless.

As for poaching removing common/rare poaches its interesting by the way im mage user mostly so i dont have to many units with poach guess i should staff wack monsters to death more often

Demi Marks YES TO THIS please. the reason of why i loved FFTA2 and FF12 was the mark hunting. nothing makes my day better than killing some badass monster and claim the reward for it. would love if you make them poach-able for very rare unique or powerful items but you said they are Immortal status'd so i don't think you make it happen

As for safeguard don't need to tell me.. i learned that when a FKING goblin stole a new helmet i just bought... was hoping to get it as a reward trophy after finishing the battle but i see what you are doing there lol

loved to poach hemogoblins when they reached 0 MP loled at that as for the undead bastards yeah ik about poaching being the legit way to kill them.

(I'm not sure how I feel about all [regular] Flans being non-elemental.)

That said, I can unfortunately understand why monsters in general will be having less elemental focus, even if that makes Psion even weirder to me. Being overly focused on elemental stuff is a problem that I've been having with regards to Embargo in general, so indeed I can see why you would want to stray away from it.

I figured you would do something like "Demi-Marks", though I'll admit that having them being able to be fought over and over again is a bit...weird. Interesting, but weird. It sort of reminds me of the weird-ass monster Arena that FFX had, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'm also not sure how I feel about Poach still, but that's a general sentiment not exclusive to your patch. Nice to see you at least consolidated the items you get from Poach like I had planned to and I'm not sure if anyone else has done yet oddly.

May I ask what made you decide to replace the monsters you replaced with the type of monsters you replaced, existent sprites aside?

XIII and its sucessor have a nice gameplay and graphics (not sure about Lightning Returns), i dont like the characters and plot. But out of Fabula Nova Crystalis or w.e i sincerely liked Type-0, i just wish i could understand the japanese shit on my screen so i could play more properly and understand the plot.

I do not want to derail this thread by talking about whether FFXIII is good or not, but I do want to respond just once by saying that the line I put bold is rather important: What's the point of playing an RPG if you don't like the characters or the plot? Hell, given how flawed vanilla is on a game-play level, the characters and the plot are why FFT is still easily my favorite Final Fantasy of the bunch and I mostly don't have favorites in any category.

I can't really say I know much about game-play, having not played the game, and some of what I've seen of it mechanically is kind of interesting, but I honestly can't care less about graphics. I mean, they're nice, sure, and even if a game's 8-bit the graphics have to be "good" since I'm not completely indifferent aesthetics. I've just never understood taking flash over substance even though it seems like shallow flash is something a lot of people--I'm not saying you necessarily--are not only okay with, but exclusively drool over.

Shrug. I guess I'm just a bit weirded out to see someone call FFXIII a good game who wasn't transparently some Square spokesperson or fanboy--not that I know much about you. As a whole, skiploom188 revealing that FFT is still the only FF he's played is way less weird to me both comparatively and as a standalone fact.

« Last Edit: June 13, 2015, 08:37:19 PM by The Damned »

"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts." - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

What's the point of playing an RPG if you don't like the characters or the plot?

It was a gift, its costed about 75,50 US$ (brazilian taxes are high as fuck), at least i wanted to make it worth since my friend really got me a very expensive game. And by not liking the characters i meant their lore and development, not appearece. So it was a 6/10 for me, It wasnt horrible to play but wasnt that good either, so being average enough got me into finishing it just for the glory of not having to play it again. Not saying i regret playing it, i regret that it wasnt a good ff like the classics or at least like or X-2 which i didnt like that much aswell but definitively more tthan XIII

“ One of these days I’ll fly an airship of my own. I’ll be a sky pirate, free to go where I will. „ ~ Vaan

Yellow Chocobos act as the White Mages of monsterkin, capable of restoring HP in an AoE and bestowing defensive buffs to keep their allies alive. Each Chocobo type has a unique advantage to give a unit riding it, and the Yellow Chocobo's advantage is +2 Move over other Chocobo types. Using Yellow Chocobos early is vital to keeping your party alive, and from wasting valuable Phoenix Downs until you acquire the Raise spell.

Black Chocobos are the Red Mages of the group, capable of some minor healing and damage, though not being a master of either. Black Chocobos have the distinctive ability to allow the rider to fly over obstacles. They're also slightly more evasive than other Chocobo types, allowing them to charge into battle a little more safely. Speed Save will (hopefully) grant 25 CT upon activation, meaning that they'll also be able to outspeed and outact other Chocobo types. This- combined with Chocobo Kick's potential Slow proc- allows them to fly past other enemies with ease. Pun slightly intended.

Red Chocobos are a mixed bag, focusing more on boosting its melee compatibility more than the other types. Using PA Save, the Red Chocobo can enhance its Chocobo Kick and Chocobo Down abilities, allowing it to switch between a melee attacker and rezzer at whim. The Red Chocobo's mount advantage is its Innate: Move-HP Up, which it confers onto its rider as well.

Goblins are designed to be annoying little brats. Evasive, accurate, with high HP and the ability to break gear, Goblins are a pain in the butt to fight without ranged attacks and magic. That said, they're completely helpless when fought at a distance. When standing alongside Gerard, they can also break Shields, allowing other allies to have an easier time to attack as well.

Other Attacks: Osmose, Mutilate (Damages and drains HP from an adjacent foe)

Hemogoblins are the pseudo-tanks of the Goblin family, capable of taking direct hits with their Osmose/Manashield combo, and able to restore their HP with Mutilate. Using Osmose, they can also directly cripple enemy mages, and can flat out cancel spells if they're in the middle of casting them thanks to their Osmose having 0 CT.

Baknamies are tricky, being highly evasive, accurate, and able to break weaponry. Using Hide, the Baknamy can retreat when injured and be ignored by enemies until it's healed, whereas then it can charge back in and start breaking more weapons. Baknamies are simple, one-trick ponies, but they're annoying, tanky one-hit ponies. Anyone who's played FFXII will understand why I made them so evasive here in PW 2.0.

Other Attacks: Fireball (Ranged MA-based Fire damage on a unit with a chance of Imperil), Bomblet (Heals 50% HP on self, Adds Reraise)

Bombs are tricky little beasts. Many patches give them Critical Quick, but very few give them a choice on what to do at that point. After Critical Quick goes off, the Bomb can choose to either blow up to deal heavy damage, or it may opt to be more defensive and use Bomblet to restore its own HP and live to fling a few more Fireballs. Imperil is the key to the Bomb's source of damage. That said, if an enemy is immune or absorbs Fire, Bombs are pretty much useless.

Other Attacks: Imperil, Icy Wind (Ice damage and a chance to Add: Stop to surrounding units within 2 AoE and self)

Grenades don't fuck around with a -chance- to inflict Imperil- they just do it flat out with the spell. Unfortunately, they lack a melee attack, and their non-blowy-upy attack can seriously destroy their allies, too. Using Teleport, Grenades can fling themselves straight into the enemy lines and cause some real damage while its allies charge the front... assuming you can deal with its low Move. Icy Wind can keep it alive while it's dishing out the pain, however. Counter Magic lets them mount an offense against ranged mages while they're approaching with seriously devastating results.

Other Attacks: Spark (Fire damage 2 AoE around self and including self- deals more damage than Icy Wind), Cure

Mom Bombs are the defensive monsters of the Bomb family. Well, as defensive as a Bomb can ever be. Using Spark, they can keep themselves alive while dishing out the hurt, and with Cure, they can instantly heal allies for a large amount of HP. Dragon Spirit ensures that they'll be able to come back with relative ease and can blow up again and again for huge amounts of damage and Imperil fun... which can then be combined with Spark once they revive.

The entire Panther family is simple, but effective. Each Panther has its own gimmick within their own family: the Panther's gimmick is the ability to completely evade tank physical strikes. Claw inflicts Blind, while Pounce deals damage from afar and Poisoning the target- making up for the Panther's rather low PA. Flee grants it Haste, allowing it to temporarily continue attempting to Blind and Poison a poor enemy.

Other Attacks: Blaster (Slow, Immobilize, or Disable on a ranged unit), Blackout

Coeurls have higher PA than Panthers, but lack the ability to fall into Defend- not that they really need it, since Blackout can Blind surrounding units. Coeurls are all about debuffing with fairly high Speed- they can cripple entire teams with ease, but their semi-low HP won't protect them from direct blows, especially from magic.

Yes. They have a +1 Speed skill. For free. Speed is the Nightcrawler's entire gimmick. They can completely turn the tides of battle by tampering with Speed. That said... they're completely helpless otherwise. They can't buff an ally's Speed, just their own, and against bosses that are immune to Slow, they get picked off easy. And- as with all other Panthers- they're very vulnerable to magic. Nightcrawlers can use Blind when adjacent to Gerard, meaning that they -can- cripple physical units. Using Nightcrawlers is all about how badly you want to use Quickening outside of Arena.

Piscodaemons are simple creatures with a simple gimmick: screwing the enemy. Stun cancels impending spells instantly with high accuracy, and Empathy is great after Critical Quicken goes off for some accurate, heavy damage. While not meant for direct battle, they can stay afar and sling their spells with little danger. Thanks to their Water Absorption, they can be healed easily by Seers, and their Squidraken kin.

Squidrakens are able to fill different roles depending on one's party: if you're using a bunch of physical attackers, buff them with Berserk. Fighting mages? Cripple them with Berserk. Need damage? Use Torrent. Have allies who Absorb Water? Heal a ton of HP instantly with Torrent. Much like Piscodaemons, Squidrakens aren't meant for direct combat, but rather, are meant for messing with the enemy's minds- literally- and screwing over mages. Further, the more they're attacked the stronger they become.

Other Attacks: Mind Blast (Confuse or Berserk on units in a small AoE), Sleep

Mindflayers are the riskiest of the family to use, but have potentially the biggest payoff. Using Mind Blast they can potentially- keyword: potentially- screw over a unit completely, though the accuracy is risky. Sleep is less risky and will easily put a unit out of the battle, but lacks AoE. Their only real method of direct damage is Counter Magic- which means NOT putting an enemy to Sleep, or Berserking it. Ultimately, Mindflayers work best as a support debuffing unit, with reliable damage. God help the enemy that tries to attack it with magic, though...

Skeletons are a combination of the other two skeletons in the family: defensively both physically and magically, though it specializes in neither. They can attack at close and heal themselves, or play it safe and attack from afar, or they can choose to slowly kill a foe with Doom. Ultimately, Skeletons are basic footmen that flat out cannot be slain permanently. Simple, but effective.

Fideliants are designed to attack from afar, and then close in and safely attack when enemies draw close. Using Stab, Fideliants can stay alive for a very long time, with Jinx helping to cripple enemies foolish enough to attack them adjacently. Though Tremor acts very similarly to Vanilla Earth Slash, Fideliants have low MA, and Tremor can be dodged.

Other Attacks: Sandstorm (PA-based ranged damage in a small AoE, persevere, with a chance to add Blind), Ward

Grave Lords are foils of Fideliants- PA-based, but having magical defenses. Though Sandstorm can be devastating, this puts the Grave Lord in danger of being midcharged with its (comparatively) weak physical defenses. Using Ward will help keep the Grave Lord alive against magical enemies, but it's crucial to stay wary until Sandstorm blinds physically based foes.

GHOSTS:

Default Attack: Ectoplasm (3 Range, damages and may inflict Undead on a unit)Beastmaster Skill: Death

Ghouls- much as all Ghosts do- exist as a magical, supportive foil compared to their Skeleton brethren. Ectoplasm gives you the chance to make an enemy unable to heal (easily), while Curse makes them unable to buff. Putrify allows you to fully heal the HP of any Undead ally- with Skeletons in mind, in particular. Using Ghouls is tricky unless other Undead units are in the party, but if there are, that's when they really shine.

Wraiths are a little more universally useful than Ghouls, but lack the high Evasion that other Ghosts have. That said, their innate Blade Grasp makes them practically immune to any bladed weapons, but they're very vulnerable to just about everything else. Raise allows them to act as a rezzer in desperate times- especially since it's instant- while Annul deals damage to a unit's MP. Unfortunately, Wraiths lack much in terms of real damage, meaning that if they're the last unit standing, they're going to be gravely outnumbered.

Revenants are the only source of Teleport 2 that the player will ever get, making them inherently different from other Ghosts in the family. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of losing defense to certain attacks and, once again, having no real source of damage. Blood Oath bestows buffs onto Undead units- including itself and allies- which makes up for it, but Nightmare Touch is the only way a Revenant will ever come close to killing anything. That said, Revenants make great distractions early on in a battle, and they won't ever permanently die, making them great meatshields. Being able to move anywhere and potentially Sleep or Doom any unit they want is also useful... just not so much in Lucavi battles.

LAMIAS:

Default Attack: Kiss (Damage to an adjacent unit with a chance to Add: Charm)Beastmaster Skill: Frog

Other Attacks: Slap (Physical damage and a random debuff to an adjacent unit), Sleep

Lamias are a basic, but potent monster. Lamias are meant to get close to the enemy and then ravage them with their high PA and debuff capabilities. Charm can easily sway the tide of battle, while Sleep can take a unit out of the battle for a prolonged period of time. If you can tolerate their randomness, Lamias can be a good addition to the team in the beginning of the game, where it can be downright amazing. Later on, not so much. Distribute is a good way of helping keep your party alive if the Lamia is damaged and then healed.

Liliths are less about debuffing enemies and more about chipping away their HP when they draw close, and supporting allies until then. Veil is free and instant- and is one of the few sources of a free Veil. To that end, Liliths are both good defensively and offensively. Using Brave Up, Liliths can begin to compete with Lamias for damage output on Kiss... but only after it goes off several times. Liliths are hit-or-miss in Lucavi battles. Using Veil, they're great to defend against the myriad statuses they use, but Dark Hurricane flat out won't work on them, and they're immune to Kiss' Charm effect.

Other Attacks: Night (Add: Sleep in a small AoE), Poison Frog (Add: Poison and Frog on a single unit)

Lamia Queens are all about inflicting crippling debuffs on the enemy, and are one of the few sources of AoE Sleep that the player can acquire. That said, both Night and Poison Frog are based on Faith, and have very low accuracy. That's where the Lamia Queen's Faith Up ability comes into play. As the battle goes on and the Lamia Queen gets damaged by PW 2.0's myriad Faith-based formulae, her skills become more accurate, meaning that the battle will begin to steer more in your favor. Lamia Queens work great when paired with Devouts, or when you're facing many enemy mages.

Other Attacks: Float, Wind Slash (Deals PA-based Wind damage to any unit on the map)

Jura Aevises are fairly non-descript creatures with a very good skill: Wind Slash. Wind Slash deals minor Wind damage to -any- unit on the map- great for sniping foes at long distances. Speed Save ensures that when the Jura Aevis does get hit, their turn will come around faster. When facing Earth-based foes and fighting on watery maps, Float helps the party overcome those obstacles. Jura Aevises in general are great for fighting in watery maps, where terrain is a challenge.

Steelhawks are support units, and- much like Panthers and Chocobos- focus on Speed. Agility ensures that the Steelhawk will get many turns where it can Dive on enemies, whereas Roost will ensure that it stays alive to deal decent damage. Simple and to the point, Steelhawks are ridiculously easy to use. Unlike other members of their family, they have 6 Move, allowing them to go wherever they need to go.

Cockatrices are glass cannons intended to fly into the enemy army, Petrify a unit, and then fly away, rinse and repeat. They can do this easily with Hide- Stone Beak is otherwise Evadeable, while Hide's Vanish will make it unable to be dodged. Using Hide afterwards will allow the Cockatrice to hide from enemy harm and come back to be healed... and then repeat it all over again. Time Slip is a new Reaction that is also on human jobs that will grant Haste upon being injured. Though Cockatrices fail against hordes of enemies, they can pretty accurately take out single units when properly set up.

TONBERRIES:

Default Attack: Knife (Damages and may Add: Death on an adjacent unit), Stalk (Add: Haste and Vanish on self)Beastmaster Skill: Everyone's Grudge (Deals damage equal to the user's lost HP in a small AoE)

Other Attacks: Lantern (Deals damage to a single foe and may Add: Curse)

You can't run. You can't hide. Even with only 2 Move, a Tonberry with its sights set on you will find and kill you. It's inevitable. Stalk grants Haste and Vanish, making the Tonberry all the more deadly and speedy, hastening you to your grave. No terrain can stop them, but they're particularly vulnerable to being debuffed. Lantern gives them a ranged option, though it's not very powerful. Curse is, however, a very dangerous status, and it's one that can easily wreck any sort of defense against a Tonberry's actions.

Don Tonberries are much like regular Tonberries, but they trade in a ranged attack for the melee Karma, which deals damage equal to lost HP- a dangerous skill, considering that Don Tonberries have some of the highest HP in the game. However, this makes them completely harmless until they get adjacent to an ally. Ultimately, Don Tonberries have much higher destructive potential, but they require a lot of work to get them to be as dangerous as possible.

Other Attacks: Voodoo (Deals damage to an adjacent unit equal to their current MP)

Found only in the bowels of Deep Dungeon, Tonberry Shades are the opposite of Tonberries: lethal to bosses, but not so much regular units. Voodoo will almost assuredly deal 999 damage to any ??? unit, but, again, the Tonberry Shade needs to be within melee distance to use it.

Adamantoises are very simple creatures: they're ridiculously tanky units, but only against certain things. That said, they have very high HP to make up for their lack of protection against debuffs and lack of evasion. Adamantoises in particular focus on physical defense: it takes a great deal of brute force to bring one down- or a well aimed spell, with Poison or Imperil to soften them up.

Mistoises are the magic-based variants of Adamantoises, with a twist: they can imbue themselves with Regen, making them a little more tanky to make up for physical attacks being more common and easy to use. As with Adamantoises, they have very high HP, but no evasion. Poison and Imperil are again quite useful!

Though not as tanky as Adamantoises and Mistoises, Shaolong Guis are an offense oriented version of them. Stonefall deals damage in a wide AoE- and it can heal the Shaolong Gui and other Adamantoise creatures. Wall can be cast on either itself or other allies to make up for its lack of defense, or it can be cast on other Adamantoises to make up for the buff they don't have. Its high HP and Regen ensures it stays alive, making it a tank with great defense and offensive capabilities.

Werewolves are all about using Hamedo to force enemies to attack themselves. Berserk is best used until the Werewolf gets close to its prey, and Taunt to Immobilize a unit that's standing next to it until the enemy gets clawed to death thanks to its own stupidity. Defense Up and a high HP total keeps the Werewolf alive just in case, though it tends to fail against foes immune to Berserk.

Weremages are different from their kin- they have 1 Move less (to make sure the AI doesn't run into units), but gain 10% EVD. Weremages are also the only units in the game to get Vanilla Demi, though it's been slightly altered to be more balanced against boss units. MA Save ensures that Silence and Demi get more accurate with each attack taken. Ultimately, Weremages are meant as offensive casters, and can easily shut enemy mages down.

Werewolf Overlords are dangerous, dangerous enemies. You can't buff while they're on the field or they'll instantly- and accurately- remove them from everyone. Attacking them directly is also dangerous, as that will increase their already high PA. They're intended as brutal physical attackers, and that's exactly what they do. No gimmicks, no tricks, just decimation.

Instant-casting Poison and Regen are the Malboro's specialty, while groping enemies for somewhat-heavy PA-based damage. Though they're not fancy, having instant Poison is a godsend, as it persists past death, and Regen is great to keep the high-HP Malboro alive. Again, not a fancy monster, but a very resilient one.

Other Attacks: Entangle (Add: Immobilize on surrounding units), Ochu Dance (Deals 5% Dark damage and Add: Poison on all foes within 3 AoE of the Ochu, perseveres every 10 CT)

Ochus are all about snaring their prey and sapping their strength. Their innate Defense Up protects them from midcharge damage, allowing them to rush into enemies and dance away at ease without fear of unnecessary damage. Entangle assures that enemies won't be able to escape, and when teaming up with Harbingers and other similar units, ensures that the enemy won't be able to escape at all.

Great Malboros have a sucky Reaction in exchange for a great passive: immunity to every debuff in the game. Bad Breath punishes anyone close to it, and Malboro Spores is there because why not. Great Malboros have high PA, allowing them to actually deal decent damage with their Tentacle attack, with the Poison proc there to help. Ultimately, Great Malboros are a debuff tank in a world where debuffs are ridiculously common, but lack the damage output of the other Malboro types.

Other Attacks: Flash (Chance to Add: Blind within 2 AoE of the user), Pacifying Shock (Thunder Elemental damage that stops at an obstacle, may Add: Stop)

Flans are physical tanks, able to shake off physical attacks at will. Flash aids in their defense of physical attacks, while Pacifying Shock assists them in, well, pacifying physical (and magical!) threats. Though their MA is low, Flans can be ridiculously annoying to fight, and once they're Hasted, they may be able to Stop, Silence, or Blind many of your units, making it difficult to kill them.

Other Attacks: Rescue (Heals all allies within 2 AoE of the user, based on MA), Esuna

Flanitors are the ultimate healers, though they lack any real means to deal damage. Having one in the party is a great way to ensure that your party stays rid of nasty debuffs and HP damage. Not much else to say, other than Flanitors being great in any party.

Other Attacks: Toxify (Add: Poison in a large AoE, very accurate), Reflect

Foobars are random- but lethal- monsters that share the Great Malboro's penchant for resisting debuffs, making them all the more annoying. Foobars specialize in Poison damage to kill their foes, while using Reflect to safeguard the party- and themselves and other Flan monsters, making them nearly invincible.

DRAGONS:

To be decided.

HYDRAS:

To be decided.

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

(Originally I was going to not using spoilers since I thought this shouldn't be that long despite there already being 42 entries. Clearly, I was delusional.)

Given how I've clogged up your other threads though, I figure using spoilers would at least be a consistent form of a problem, sort of like SAD. I also figure I'll make a spoiler for generic monsters as whole too, so there's that:

1. First and foremost, I have to say that I'm jealous of how clean your formatting is. I rather like it.

2. I see now what you were talking about as it pertains to cutting down on monsters having elemental weaknesses, though this is a lot more than even I expected. While I can understand lessening elemental weaknesses so much, it's a bit strange to see so few elemental affinities at all. I suppose I'll just have to get used to it.

3. Similarly, I'll have to get used to the amount of Non-Charge/Omnicasting and hume/human spells-as-Monster Skill in these designs.

4. I'll also have to get used the two shared skills, one of which is Beastmaster-only, and then two separate skills for each monster set-up.

5. I'll admit that I'm rather surprised you didn't go all out as far as innates go, but I have to say that I rather like that for most part and not just because it makes me feel less like we're directly "competing".

6. That said, seeing the emphasis on evasion makes me even more wary of Sniper having innate Concentrate. I "have" to ask: these evasion amounts are still unfortunately applicable only from the front, correct? Or did you find a way to make monster evasion (and only universal monster evasion) global?

7. I'm not going to ask for specifics here, but I imagine that you're going to make (generic) monster stats not as extreme as they were in vanilla compared to humans, correct?

8. Beyond that, there's the obvious question with the almost as obvious answer: Despite the fact Gerard is basically a Blue Mage, the Blue Magic(k) he gets isn't explicitly marked as such and pointed out in-game, is it? I'm obviously fine with that. I just figured I would ask it.

1. As a whole, these look good, though Chocobos generally don't ever vary much between patches anyway. Still, it is nice to finally see someone else use Choco(bo) Barrier/Shield, even if you're using "Chocobo" instead of "Choco", which will also take a bit of getting used to. Otherwise, the focus on speed and movement makes sense as well as explaining why the (Al)Chemist item that give you Haste is Chocobo Feather without making it so that the Chocobo A.I. obsesses over Haste or Slow. Good job there.

2. It's mostly due to my own patches, but it's a bit weird to me nowadays to see the Class C Chocobo just called "Chocobo" instead of "Yellow Chocobo". I mean, it makes sense that they'd just be "Chocobo" really since Yellow Chocobos are basically always the most common color; it's just another thing that will take adjustment for me even though that's how it was in vanilla too. Oddly, it's not as surprising to see that your (Yellow) Chocobos don't have revival given you're trying to focus your patch more along the lines of preventative measures. I'm guessing Choco(bo) Cure and Choco(bo) Barrier Shield can target the user as well, correct? Or do they strictly target allies?

3. Black Chocobo is basically the same in every patch, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. A bit odd to see it being the only one with Choco Esuna I'll admit though, even if that too was the case in vanilla.

4. Interesting to have both the revival be on Red Chocobo and have it go by PA when you could have easily had it go by MA and used MA Save for both that and Choco Meteor. I thank you that you didn't do that, though, given that I've always found Choco Meteor a tad...annoying, which is part of the reason why I got rid of Red Chocobos as generic monsters.

1. Much like Chocobos, it seems like Goblins don't ever differ that much between patches. I suppose it's not too surprising given they're easily the most human-like of monsters, so it's easy to give them human abilities and so they usually end up as breakers or thieves. I can't say that I like Goblin Punch, though, given I dislike Shock-like abilities as a whole. Similarly, its existence, especially as a shared ability and in lieu of an independent attack, doesn't gives me much confidence that Goblins will go for breaks unless they're at full HP or near full HP, but meh. Who knows given how the A.I. acts though, especially with Innate Concentrate. I'm probably fine with Innate Concentrate on them between their lack of range, lack of Blind immunity and large inability to get past Maintenance, assuming Maintenance still exists. Probably.

2. Speaking of which, I'm not sure how I feel about regular Goblins being utterly walled by Maintenance and presumably by other monsters, but that's literally my only commentary on them at present.

3. Hemogoblin is easily the Goblin design I like the most of these Classes and easily the one I'd be the most likely to use. Beyond the excellent name pun and presumably MP Switch being balanced for overflow damage (...right?), they're the only Goblin that doesn't keel over to Maintenance or other monsters, even if they doubtless have problems with Undead units and maybe ??? units. Still, that weakness is a good balance for how self-sufficient their abilities are rather than being completely dependent upon the enemy having equipment or having hurt them to do anything.

4. Baknamy, on the other hand, seem rather redundant between having Hide and Concentrate. I also can't say that I at all like the implicit confirmation that the A.I. still acts ignorant of anything with Transparent on it. Still, it's nice to see someone else use the name finally, though it does remind me that I still need to finish FFXII like I do most other things.

1. Not much to say about these in the general sense other than that I somewhat like them not having a physical attack since Bite always looked a bit odd to me even knowing they have an actual physical shell beneath the constant flame. I must confess that I'm a bit surprised that you aren't halving the damage on Self-Destruct, especially since Imperil is more "buff" than Oil and two of them have Reraise potential, but meh, it's up to you.

2. Speaking of Imperil, I suppose Bombs' general entry is implicit confirmation that unlike the current version of Oil in ARENA, Imperil doesn't get around Null: Element or Absorb: Element. Is this a correct conclusion?

3. I...actually don't hate dislike Bomblet as much as may be expected for me, partly because it is a legitimate way to give them something else to do besides commit suicide and partly because of the potential limitations of Imperil above when they only have Fire element damage otherwise. (Wait, is Self-Destruct also Fire element now? I doubt it, but I figure I should ask.)

Regardless, it also helps that Bombs aren't immune to Doom, so I suppose there's that as well, though I'm not sure how your version of Doom and your version of Reraise interact....

4. Oh, hey, you went with the "reverse Bomb" idea that I was wanting to see someone else use. Neat. That said, they seem like they might be a bit too buff between having Teleport, Counter Magic, Icy Wind's large AoE damage & self-healing with potential Stop, pretty decent evasion and instant Imperil. Even with their potential killing of other Bombs & non-Ice-aligned allies and lack of Critical Quick & Reraise, just not being fiery seems like a boost itself too even with them still being single-element without a Beastmaster around. Speaking of which, I'm kinda surprised that their Beastmaster skill is presumably still Fire instead of Ice. (Also, Pokemon is totally going to have me think at least once that this version of Icy Wind causes Slow, not Stop. Just putting that out there even though the name is mostly fine; if anything, I have far more of problem with it not actually being Wind element and possible confusion there.)

5. Much like HP Restore, without some kind of cap, I doubt I'll ever like Dragon Spirit. That said, it's also nice to see Mom Bomb show up, though I must confess that I thought it would be as a Demi-Mark. Still, an out-and-out defensively curative Bomb is an interesting idea for a generic monster.

1. The sheer amount of evasion these guys have support my assumption that, yes, the evasion monsters have still only applies to the front (unfortunately). Besides that, I like that these guys focus around said evasion, even if the Beastmaster ability being Blind/Umbra feels a bit redundant. I also "obviously" dislike Nightcrawler from the word "go" due to it having Quickening, which will forever be a stupid ability to me, at least as long as CT is calculated from pure Speed and nothing else; it would probably still be stupid even otherwise and even with Xifanie's stat limitation hack used though. It's your patch though, so I'm not going to nag you to change it; I just won't be using it and will grit my teeth while fighting them should they actually use it.

2. The Class C Panther that is called, well, Panther being the only one to have the seemingly now-hack-requisite "Panther attack that causes Poison" is a bit odd to me. Other than that, I feel like it's the one with the least redundant abilities in that it seems to be the only one that has another damaging attack on it at all.

3. Speaking of which, I find it a bit odd that Nightcrawler is singled out as not being able to do damage beyond Claw when it seems like Coeurl doesn't seem to have any other damaging abilities either if I'm reading Blaster and Blackout correctly. Granted, I see how Couerl has more offense due to being able to inflicted the most varied status of three and Counter, but...yeah. It also has the most redundancy between Claw, Blackout and Beastmaster being Blind for it too.

4. Since we already know my feelings about the loathsome ability that is Quickening, my only other comment on Nightcrawler at present is this: "Jinx" is that counter ability you made that counters with random negative status, correct?

1. "Piscodaemons are simple creatures with a simple gimmick: screwing the enemy." ...Must...resist...snide...comment. ...Well, beyond this spoiler's heading. I can't say I like all of the Confuse here, but at the same time, it's not at all surprising, so meh. The only other general comments I have are that it's nice to see them keep Absorb: Water even if it's weird for them not still to be Weak: Lightning and that they seem to have a tad much evasion for things that cause Confuse so easily; I'm presuming that Confusion still tanks your accuracy (provided I just didn't imagine that right now). If their evasion differed, then I could see Squidraken being justified in having the most evasion--being the amount currently given at 30%--given it has Berserk without Defense UP. Given its already arguably the best due its sheer variety and MA Save, however....

2. I don't have much else to say about Piscodaemons except that I have to ask if Critical Quick is called "Critical: Quicken" now universally or not. I "have" to ask since it's still "Critical Quick" in Bombs' entry.

3. Similarly, I don't have much else to say about Squidraken, so I'll ask yet another question: Torrent can hit the user, correct?

4. As with the general Confuse, I can't say I much like Mind Blast still causing Confuse. That said, I thank you for at least making it Confuse or Berserk rather than potentially both (...right?) since getting hit by both of those infinite statuses at once was one of the most infuriating things about vanilla, especially given it could occur in an AoE; it kind of annoys me when patches keep that aspect as such since no one has bothered to make either finite in duration yet. That said, I'm not really sure how I feel about Counter Magic on these things. It seems like that would only be dangerous to the A.I. itself, which can't see reactions, beyond perhaps a one-time ignorance thing for players. Shrug.

1. Their physical attacks causing HP drain is interesting especially given how people tend to go with having them cause Poison if they cause any status at all. It's a shame that their Beastmaster ability, Zombify, is so counter to it though.

2. Speaking of Poison, that's the only status I'm somewhat surprised to see them immune to, though I can understand why it's there I suppose. It makes "sense" for them not to be susceptible to Poison since they're just bone presumably, but it also makes their guaranteed revival rather damn annoying. That's one of reasons that they're no longer generic monsters for me.

3. Speaking of guaranteed Undead revival, I "have" to ask: Are you planning on using that hack that guarantees revival on the fourth turn like ARENA is apparently using? Or are you just going to keep the vanilla 50/50 chance of revival on the fourth turn and every turn after that they remain "dead"?

4. I see you're also going with the idea of at least one of the Skeletons as generic footsoldiers, though I think yours is a good deal tankier than mine on both sides given both Defense UP and Magic Defense UP. I'm largely fine with that, though, given its abilities save for Bone Toss are basically walled by other Undead and thus they are the most undermined by its own Beastmaster ability. Still, instant Doom and Meatbone Slash might be a bit much, especially since guaranteed revival would compensate even for having crap HP (if they do).

5. There's not much to say about Fideliant except that it's a bit weird to me that they don't Absorb: Earth, but I understand why they don't since it's not like Tremor hits the self anyway. Actually, speaking of absorption, I just realized that none of the Skeletons have any Dark attacks, which is a bit surprising even with Stab (and Brace and Ward) to heal themselves against things that aren't Undead. Hunh.

6. Similarly, for Grave Lord, my only real comment presently is that it's a bit weird that Sandstorm is neither Earth element nor Wind element but I can understand that I suppose. I can certainly understand foregoing making it dual element at least, even though you show just a bit later on with Lilith's Dark Wind that you're at least somewhat fine with doing that.

7. Oh, and I just realized that Skeletons aren't Weak: Holy and Fidelant can't do jack to Ghosts. Hunh again.

8. Finally, the syntax under Fidelant for "then close in and safely attack when enemies draw close" is a bit redundant and contrary: either the Fidelant is closing in or the enemy is. (Yes, I'm nit-picking now. Well, more blatantly anyway.)

1. Of course, it was looking at Ghosts that made just now realize that you split up the traditional Undead weaknesses of Fire and Holy between Skeletons and them rather than having both of them still be weak to both elements. That's...interesting even if I'm not sure how to feel about it otherwise, partly due to general weirdness (to me) of the relative lack of elemental affinities in general. Beyond that, it's not surprising that Ectoplasm can add Undead, that their Beastmaster ability is Death, that they have such high evasion and that they share all of their status immunities with Skeletons. It's not like not being surprising is necessarily a bad thing, though.

2. I will comment that their Beastmaster ability is, again, a bit contrary to what their regular attack is doing. I'll also openly wonder if Death with Non-Charge/Omnicasting might not be a bit overpowered, at least compared to most other Beastmaster abilities.

3. I literally have nothing to say about Ghouls, so this paradoxical statement aside....

4. Wraiths having such a severe drop off in evasion is a bit...odd even for the sake of Raise, but I guess it is instant Raise on a unit that is guaranteed to come back itself, so it's probably warranted. Actually, given Blade Grasp still apparently exists, even in a much degraded form, it's definitely warranted. This even if Wraith's only other "unique" ability is an MP damaging ability that is thus useless against other monsters and of dubious use otherwise. Still, at least one monster "had" to have an MP damage-only ability and Revenant seems like a good choice.

5. Revenant having Teleport 2 is a bit...weird. What? You thought I was going to say "overpowered"? Meh. I mean, having what's essentially a Fear ability as a unique close-range ability with that isn't exactly reassuring, but my "problem" with Teleport 2 has more become over the years the realization that it's basically utterly redundant to regular Teleport. I mean, you would and can basically achieve the same thing with Teleport and a large amount of Move as you can with Teleport 2. Still, it's not like we're currently in need of Movement space when so many Movements are currently either outright useless or easily made redundant, so this is a pointless tangent at present.

That said, there's not much else for me to say about Revenants besides aside from openly wondering why they got Teleport 2 instead of just regular Teleport in a more general sense. Care to elucidate?

1. The masochist in me is a bit sad to see that these aren't going to be murder machines they are in Journey of the Five. That same part realizes how good Kiss is or at least can be, however, and the fact that Lamias easily have one of the better Beastmaster abilities. I'll admit I'm surprised they have Cannot Enter Water instead of something else though.

2. I have to wonder just how varied and random the debuffs from Slap are. That's about my only comment on the Class C Lamia outside of it being vaguely nice to see some monster have Distribute even if it isn't a monster with some type of healing otherwise and a monster that completely lacks any elemental absorption.

3. Liliths already seem like one of the better monsters just due to free, instant Veil, even if they're utterly mediocre-at-best against ??? units otherwise and even if Brave UP is...Brave UP. Other than that, it's nice to see someone finally use Dark Hurricane (as a generic monster ability).

4. So your Class A Lamia is called Lamia Queen? Interesting, though again not really surprising. I find it more interesting that all of the Lamias got stuck with the some of the weakest Reactions and yet you went out of way to make sure that they still got put to good use; I'd say that Faith UP is more underrated than all that weak though, especially since it seems to go by abilities that use MP rather than abilities that actually use Faith (unless you've fixed that).

5. It's also interesting to note that Night is "one of the few instances of AoE Sleep the player can acquire." I had been assuming that Sleep the spell still had AoE, even with Mimic Daravon no longer available for generic use. Hunh.

6. My only other comment on Lamia Queen is a question: Does Poison Frog have any range? Or is it a close-range ability only despite being Faith-based?

1. Oh, good. You're also calling them Aevises. That makes me feel better about using that instead of Avions even if Aevises is still a bit...odd.

2. I just realized that with Ahrimans/Ahrimen/Ahrimani no longer generic monsters and Dragons & Hydras currently not figured out, these are the only monsters whose entire family can Fly. Hmm...not sure how I feel that combined with their massive evasion, range and Move.

3. Speaking of quite good monsters, Jura Aevis might be the best one yet, at least for players, between having the only ability that can hit anywhere on screen and having an instant, permanent buff that doubles as an unavoidable debuff for the aforementioned ability. That the A.I. will probably only view Float as a buff and thus use it accordingly if it uses at all is part of the problem I always think of whenever anyone brings up the idea of making Float Weak to Wind. Having Speed Save is just icing on the cake.

4. I'll admit that I'm surprised you used "Jura Aevis" for the generic monster and didn't save it for the Demi-Mark given where that name comes from. Even if "Jura Aevis" is obviously what the mistranslated name of the Class C Aevis in vanilla is supposed to be, it's just a bit odd to see on a non-boss enemy after all these years.

5. I can't say I like Roost fully restoring HP at all. It just seems too easy to have a Steelhawk set up shop as distraction bait after mass-Hasting with Agility that way, especially with Arrow Guard, 6 Move and no weaknesses even if it has no immunities to any negative status. I mean, I'm sure it's supposed to be that way, but full HP, instant restoration just seems too much. Speaking of its 6 Move though, it's currently listed as 5 Move in the actual stats, so I'm not sure whether you actually reduced it & the "6 Move" is an artefact/artifact or if it's just a typo in the stat section.

6. I don't really have any comment on Cockatrice save for saying the obvious in that their abilities have good synergy but I still fear that the A.I. won't act half of the time after it makes itself Transparent.

1. Hmmm...yeah, my Tonberies still suck and are by far the weakest of everyone's, partly because I'm still resistant to giving them potentially instant kill or Shock-like abilities unlike everyone else. I am a bit surprised that you let Knife have the potential of instant death since it gets around the rather preventative nature of the patch as a whole and A.I. tends to blunder towards its enemy even when it really shouldn't. Still, you did give them rather abysmal Move & Jump and no status immunities, so that helps mitigate things I suppose, especially since it doesn't say that Knife is unavoidable like it usually is.

2. Despite having just commented on it above, I can't say that I like Stalk adding Vanish/Transparent due to how the A.I. tends to (not) act while under its effects. It would be shame to have all of the potential power Tonberry has go to waste on the A.I. side.

3. Actually, I don't have much else to say about your Tonberries currently, so this will be the shortest entry of the bunch. I do like how they have mostly Movement abilities innately, even if it's a shame to see Move on Lava have to be one of them given Lava is only on one map. I'd probably kvetch about Ignore Height being kind of a waste too when you could just give them high Jump, but it somewhat fits on them, so I won't.

1. My, all that innate status makes these easily the most vexing versions of turtles I've seen yet far. Still, they have pretty interesting variation given that everyone else, including myself, just tends to go with the "turtles are all physical tanks" approach. I also generally like your names better. It is a bit odd, however, to just now get back to a monster that Absorbs an element at all and still has no weakness on top of that.

2. That said, Adamantoise the Class C monster and Mistoise having Protect and Shell respectively, while it makes sense, seems a bit redundant. Similarly, isn't Steelguard nigh pointless on Adamantoise since it has 0% evasion itself? At least Mediguard adds Regen in addition to Defending, so Mistoise is fine there.

3. Shaolong Gui having such decent evasion alongside instant Wall, permanent Regen and self-healing seems a bit...much, at least compared to other turtles. This even if it is the most vulnerable to being Poisoned because of how Always: Regen backfires in that regard.

1. At last we come to the monster type I'm generally least excited about and the ideas here are...more than decent. Universal immunity to Silence seems rather weird though when it doesn't look like anyone but Weremage would actually need it. I'm guessing it's there for a reason though.

2. Werewolf the Class C monster looks rather...obnoxious if you don't block Berserk, especially since Berserk is infinite. Does Hamedo still completely negate the would-be attack too? If so, then, yeah, these might be a tad overpowered.

3. Oh, so Weremage is where Demi went. Not really much else to say except that it's nice to see a magical take on Werewolf "finally" even if I still have no interest in using Werewolves myself and even if the name & having access to Demi make think of them with Time Mage's silly Triangle Hats.

4. While Werewolf Overlord's Howl also seems rather obnoxious, it doesn't seem like it's unfairly obnoxious like regular Werewolf's...aggregate abilities are. It just seems really good in a lot of situations, especially since it's enemy-only. Other than that, I'm guessing that Blitz is much like the FFT:A ability of the same name and is just an attack (with potential recoil?) that does a lot of damage to a single-target. Is this correct?

1. Hmm...it's rather weird to see Bad Breath still around yet exclusive to only one of the Malboros. Not sure how I feel about that to be honest even if I understand it due to how powerful Bad Breath can be.

2. Similarly, I'm not sure how I feel about Malboros being simple Poison-bots, but I can't say that it doesn't work. It's just going to take some adjustment.

3. I generally like the abilities that Ochu has, though Ochu Dance, even knowing what it comes from, is a bit odd to me--it's the Dark elemental part, which I'm assuming is there primarily for ??? units. I was also going to say that "it being mid-charged is impossible with Non-Charge" before remembering that Non-Charge doesn't affect anything that Perseveres, not just Song and Dance. At least, I vaguely recall that it doesn't--it's been quite a while since I tested that too. Then again, Ochu Dance is, well, a Dance of sorts and it's not like you couldn't just one of Song or Dance's spots if you really needed to since Performer is actually using Samurai's old spots.

4. Great Malboros are...odd, mostly just due to Malboros Spores being there pretty much "just because". I have to wonder how the A.I. will act with that not being a Monster Skill too and if it will actually be dumb enough to use it on non-Malboro allies, especially if it has nothing better to do. Hmmm.... It could be interesting, but for all the wrong reasons. Regardless, this being immune to all debuffs seems a lot fairer than the current form of Foobar being so, but we'll get to that in a minute; Great Malboro having the extremely weak Catch as its reaction helps make that seem fair, potential Malboro Spore spam aside.

1. I see what you meant about not doing elemental Flans. I'm guessing these were more how Flans generally were in FFXIII, which is interesting I suppose, though I know for a fact that Foobars are from FFXII, at least first. We'll talk Foobars last though.

2. Due to how narrow a status Silence is unless you're changing it, I could see Slime getting away with potentially causing some other status as well. Shrug.

3. I see that your regular Flans are sort of like my Iced Flan despite the fact that if yours were elemental, then these ones would doubtless be Lightning-elemental like my Shock Jelly given its attack names. Constant Regen may be a bit much instead of just Regenerator (assuming that even still exists), but since this thing isn't immune to Poison and only gets Regen the skill as Beastmaster Skill, it's arguably a weakness....

4. Flanitor seems a lot fairer than I was expecting to be honest, primarily due to it lacking a revival ability and not having MA Save with what seems essentially like Murasame. I was going say that Reraise with Dragon Spirit seemed a bit much...but then I remembered I was reluctantly doing the exactly same thing with my own Dragons currently which are far more offense-oriented. So carry on in that regard.

5. Foobar on the other hand...holy crap do these things seem annoyingly overpowered from a glance. Granted, they're more overpowered on a defensive side than the offensive side like I think normal Werewolves are, but given they're all about attrition through Poison anyway.... To be specific, what's overpowering to me is primarily how they have MP Switch in addition to instant Reflect, instant large-AoE "very accurate" Poison, immunity to all debuffs and the Flan standard Always: Protect with Defense UP combo. I just think that MP Switch is way overkill and should remain unique to Hemogoblin, where it actually fits besides, but that may just be me. Shrug.

Regardless, it is nice to see someone else using Foobars, especially since it's a such a funny name. I'm using them as well, but there are several reasons that I kept mine as the secretive, non-generic enemy that they always were. I'm assuming that these are at least not all that common even if they aren't trapped in the Deep Dungeon like Tonberry Shades. Is that correct?

All that aside, I can't really say much to help with Dragons or Hydras unfortunately should you actually need help in that department. I imagine you're having opposite problems with them, though. Dragons are so generic and widespread in fantasy everything that it's easy to come up with anything for them and have it fit, even with Dragoner abilities still around. Meanwhile Hydras have something of the opposite problem since they're far less common for inspiration, they "have" to have tri-directional abilities to take advantage of their sprite and at the same time they almost mandate being better versions of Dragons because of it; the latter is part of the reason why they too are no longer a normal monster for me.

It was a gift, its costed about 75,50 US$ (brazilian taxes are high as fuck), at least i wanted to make it worth since my friend really got me a very expensive game. And by not liking the characters i meant their lore and development, not appearece. So it was a 6/10 for me, It wasnt horrible to play but wasnt that good either, so being average enough got me into finishing it just for the glory of not having to play it again. Not saying i regret playing it, i regret that it wasnt a good ff like the classics or at least like or X-2 which i didnt like that much aswell but definitively more tthan XIII

Oh, so the old "gift guilt" thing. Say no more.

Interesting to know you're Brazilian. I wouldn't have guessed considering you type English better than most of my fellow Americans.

« Last Edit: June 15, 2015, 10:19:33 PM by The Damned »

"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts." - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

(Originally I was going to not using spoilers since I thought this shouldn't be that long despite there already being 42 entries. Clearly, I was delusional.)

Given how I've clogged up your other threads though, I figure using spoilers would at least be a consistent form of a problem, sort of like SAD. I also figure I'll make a spoiler for generic monsters as whole too, so there's that:

1. First and foremost, I have to say that I'm jealous of how clean your formatting is. I rather like it.

2. I see now what you were talking about cutting down on monsters having elemental weaknesses, though this is a lot more than even I expected. While I can understand lessening elemental weaknesses so much, it's a bit strange to see so few elemental affinities at all. I suppose I'll just have to get used to it.

3. Similarly, I'll have to get used to the amount of Non-Charge/Omnicasting and hume/human spells-as-Monster Skill in these designs.

4. I'll also have to get the two shared skills, one of which is Beastmaster-only, and then two separate skills for each monster set-up.

5. I'll admit that I'm rather surprised you didn't go all out as far as innates go, but I have to say that I rather like that for most part and not just because it makes me feel less like we're directly "competing".

6. That said, seeing the emphasis on evasion makes me even more wary of Sniper having innate Concentrate. I "have" to ask: these evasion amounts are still unfortunately applicable only from the front, correct? Or did you find a way to make monster evasion (and only universal monster evasion) global?

7. I'm not going to ask for specifics here, but I imagine that you're going to make (generic) monster stats not as extreme as they were in vanilla compared to humans, correct?

8. Beyond that, there's the obvious question with the almost as obvious answer: Despite the fact Gerard is basically a Blue Mage, the Blue Magic he gets isn't explicitly marked as such and pointed out in-game, is it? I'm obviously fine with that. I just figured I would ask it.

1. As a whole, these look good, though Chocobos generally don't ever vary much between patches anyway. Still, it is nice to finally see someone else use Choco(bo) Barrier/Shield, even if you're using "Chocobo" instead of "Choco", which will also take a bit of getting used to. Otherwise, the focus on speed and movement makes sense as well as explaining why the (Al)Chemist item that give you Haste is Chocobo Feather without making it so that the Chocobo A.I. obsesses over Haste or Slow. Good job there.

2. It's mostly due to my own patches, but it's a bit weird to me nowadays to see the Class C Chocobo just called "Chocobo" instead of "Yellow Chocobo". I mean, it makes sense that they'd just be "Chocobo" really since Yellow Chocobos are basically always the most common color; it's just another thing that will take adjustment for me even though that's how it was in vanilla too. Oddly, it's not as surprising to see that your (Yellow) Chocobos don't have revival given you're trying to focus your patch more along the lines of preventative measures. I'm guessing Choco(bo) Cure and Choco(bo) Barrier Shield can target the user as well, correct? Or do they strictly target allies?

3. Black Chocobo is basically the same in every patch, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. A bit odd to see it being the only one with Choco Esuna I'll admit though, even if that too was the case in vanilla.

4. Interesting to have both the revival be on Red Chocobo and have it go by PA when you could have easily had it go by MA and used MA Save for both that and Choco Meteor. I thank you that you didn't do that, though, given that I've always found Choco Meteor a tad...annoying, which is part of the reason why I got rid of Red Chocobos as generic monsters.

1. Much like Chocobos, it seems like Goblins don't ever differ that much between patches. I suppose it's not too surprising given they're easily the most human-like of monsters, so it's easy to give them human abilities and so they usually end up as breakers or stealers. I can't say that I like Goblin Punch, though, given I dislike Shock-like abilities as a whole. Similarly, its existence, especially as a shared ability and in lieu of an independent attack, doesn't gives me much confidence that Goblins will go for breaks unless they're at full HP or near full HP, but meh. Who knows with given how the A.I. acts though, especially with Innate Concentrate. I'm probably fine with Innate Concentrate on them between their lack of range, lack of Blind immunity and large inability to get past Maintenance, assuming Maintenance still exists. Probably.

2. Speaking of which, I'm not sure how I feel about regular Goblins being utterly walled by Maintenance and presumably by other monsters, but that's literally my only commentary on them at present.

3. Hemogoblin is easily the Goblin design I like the most of these Classes and easily the one I'd be the most likely to use. Beyond the excellent name pun and presumably MP Switch being balanced for overflow damage (...right?), they're the only Goblin that doesn't keel over to Maintenance or other monsters, even if they doubtless have problems with Undead units and maybe ??? units. Still, that weakness is a good balance for how self-sufficient their abilities are rather than being completely dependent upon the enemy having equipment or having hurt them to do anything.

4. Baknamy, on the other hand, seem rather redundant between having Hide and Concentrate. I also can't say that I at all like the implicit confirmation that the A.I. still acts ignorant of anything with Transparent on it. Still, it's nice to see someone else use the name finally, though it does remind me that I still need to finish FFXII like I do most other things.

1. Not much to say about these in the general sense other than that I somewhat like them not having a physical attack since Bite always looked a bit odd to me even knowing they have an actual physical shell beneath the constant flame. I must confess that I'm a bit surprised that you aren't halving the damage on Self-Destruct, especially since Imperil is more "buff" than Oil and two of them have Reraise potential, but meh, it's up to you.

2. Speaking of Imperil, I suppose Bombs' general entry is implicit confirmation that unlike the current version of Oil in ARENA, Imperil doesn't get around Null: Element or Absorb: Element. Is this a correct conclusion?

3. I...actually don't hate dislike Bomblet as much may be expected for me, partly because it is a legitimate way to give them something else to do besides commit suicide and partly because of the potential limitations of Imperil above when they only have Fire element damage otherwise. (Wait, is Self-Destruct also Fire element now? I doubt, but I figure I should ask.)

Regardless, it also helps that Bombs aren't immune to Doom, so I suppose there's that as well, though I'm not sure how your version of Doom and your version of Reraise interact....

4. Oh, hey, you went with the "reverse Bomb" idea that I was wanting to see someone else use. Neat. That said, they seem like they might be a bit too buff between having Teleport, Counter Magic, Icy Wind's large AoE damage & self-healing with potential Stop, pretty decent evasion and instant Imperil. Even with their potential killing of other Bombs & non-Ice-aligned allies and lack of Critical Quick & Reraise, just not being fiery seems like a boost itself too even with them still being single-element without a Beastmaster around. Speaking of which, I'm kinda surprised that their Beastmaster skill is presumably still Fire instead of Ice. (Also, Pokemon is totally going to have me think at least once that this version of Icy Wind causes Slow, not Stop. Just putting that out there even though the name is mostly fine; if anything, I have far more of problem with it not actually being Wind element and possible confusion there.)

5. Much like HP Restore, without some kind of cap, I doubt I'll ever like Dragon Spirit. That said, it's also nice to see Mom Bomb show up, though I must confess that I thought it would be as a Demi-Mark. Still, an out-and-out defensively curative Bomb is an interesting idea for a generic monster.

1. The sheer amount of evasion these guys have support my assumption that, yes, the evasion monsters have still only applies to the front (unfortunately). Besides that, I like that these guys focus around said evasion, even if the Beastmaster ability being Blind/Umbra feels a bit redundant. I also "obviously" dislike Nightcrawler from the word "go" due to it having Quickening, which will forever be a stupid ability to me, at least as long as CT is calculated from pure Speed and nothing else; it would probably still be stupid even otherwise and even with Xifanie's stat limitation hack used though. It's your patch though, so I'm not going to nag you to change it; I just won't be using it and will grit my teeth while fighting them should they actually use it.

2. The Class C Panther that is called, well, Panther being the only one to have the seemingly now-hack-requisite "Panther attack that causes Poison" is a bit odd to me. Other than that, I feel like it's the one with the least redundant abilities in that it seems to be the only one that has another damaging attack on it at all.

3. Speaking of which, I find it a bit odd that Nightcrawler is singled out as not being able to do damage beyond Claw when it seems like Coeurl doesn't seem to have any other damaging abilities either if I'm reading Blaster and Blackout correctly. Granted, I see how Couerl has more offense due to being able to inflicted the most varied status of three and Counter, but...yeah. It also has the most redundancy between Claw, Blackout and Beastmaster being Blind for it too.

4. Since we already know my feelings about the loathsome ability that is Quickening, my only other comment on Nightcrawler at present is this: "Jinx" is that counter ability you made that counters with random negative status, correct?

1. "Piscodaemons are simple creatures with a simple gimmick: screwing the enemy." ...Must...resist...snide...comment. ...Well, beyond this spoiler's heading. I can't say I like all of the Confuse here, but at the same time, it's not at all surprising, so meh. The only other general comments I have are that it's nice to see them keep Absorb: Water even if it's weird for them not still to be Weak: Lightning and that they seem to have a tad much evasion for things that cause Confuse so easily; I'm presuming that Confusion still tanks your accuracy (provided I just didn't imagine that right now). If their evasion differed, then I could see Squidraken being justified in having the most evasion--being the amount currently given at 30%--given it has Berserk without Defense UP. Given its already arguably the best due its sheer variety and MA Save, however....

2. I don't have much else to say about Piscodaemons except that I have to ask if Critical Quick is called "Critical: Quicken" now universally or not. I "have" to ask since it's still "Critical Quick" in Bombs' entry.

3. Similarly, I don't have much else to say about Squidraken, so I'll ask yet another question: Torrent can hit the user, correct?

4. As with the general Confuse, I can't say I much like Mind Blast still causing Confuse. That said, I thank you for at least making it Confuse or Berserk rather than potentially both (...right?) since getting hit by both of those infinite statuses at once was one of the most infuriating things about vanilla, especially given it could occur in an AoE; it kind of annoys me when patches keep that aspect as such since no one has bothered to make either finite in duration yet. That said, I'm not really sure how I feel about Counter Magic on these things. It seems like that would only be dangerous to the A.I. itself, which can't see reactions, beyond perhaps a one-time ignorance thing for players. Shrug.

1. Their physical attacks causing HP drain is interesting especially given how people tend to go with having them cause Poison if they cause any status at all. It's a shame that their Beastmaster ability, Zombify, is so counter to it though.

2. Speaking of Poison, that's the only status I'm somewhat surprised to see them immune to, though I can understand why it's there I suppose. It makes "sense" for them not to be susceptible to Poison since they're just bone presumably, but it also makes their guaranteed revival rather damn annoying. That's one of reasons that they're no longer generic monsters for me.

3. Speaking of guaranteed Undead revival, I "have" to ask: Are you planning on using that hack that guarantees revival on the fourth turn like ARENA is apparently using? Or are you just going to keep vanilla 50/50 chance of revival on the fourth turn and every turn after that they remain "dead"?

4. I see you're also going with the idea of at least one of the Skeletons as generic footsoldiers, though I think yours is a good deal tankier than mine on both sides given both Defense UP and Magic Defense UP. I'm largely fine with that, though, given its abilities save for Bone Toss are basically walled by other Undead and thus they are the most undermined by its own Beastmaster ability. Still, instant Doom and Meatbone Slash might be a bit much, especially since guaranteed revival would compensate even for having crap HP (if they do).

5. There's not much to say about Fideliant except that it's a bit weird to me that they don't Absorb: Earth, but I understand why they don't since it's not like Tremor hits the self anyway. Actually, speaking of absorption, I just realized that none of the Skeletons have any Dark attacks, which is a bit surprising even with Stab (and Brace and Ward) to heal themselves against things that aren't Undead. Hunh.

6. Similarly, for Grave Lord, my only real comment presently is that it's a bit weird that Sandstorm is neither Earth element nor Wind element but I can understand that I suppose. I can certainly understand foregoing making it dual element at least, even though you show just a bit later on with Lilith's Dark Wind that you're at least somewhat fine with doing that.

7. Oh, and I just realized that Skeletons aren't Weak: Holy and Fidelant can't do jack to Ghosts. Hunh again.

8. Finally, the syntax under Fidelant for "then close in and safely attack when enemies draw close" is a bit redundant and contrary: either the Fidelant is closing in or the enemy is. (Yes, I'm nit-picking now. Well, more blatantly anyway.)

1. Of course, it was looking at Ghosts that made just now realize that you split up the traditional Undead weaknesses of Fire and Holy between Skeletons and them rather than having both of them still be weak to both elements. That's...interesting even if I'm not sure how to feel about it otherwise, partly due to general weirdness (to me) of the relative lack of elemental affinities in general. Beyond that, it's not surprising that Ectoplasm can add Undead, that their Beastmaster ability is Death, that they have such high evasion and that they share all of their status immunities with Skeletons. It's not like not being surprising is necessarily a bad thing, though.

2. I will comment that their Beastmaster ability is, again, a bit contrary to what their regular attack is doing. I'll also openly wonder if Death with Non-Charge/Omnicasting might not be a bit overpowered, at least compared to most other Beastmaster abilities.

3. I literally have nothing to say about Ghouls, so this paradoxical statement aside....

4. Wraiths having such a severe drop off in evasion is a bit...odd even for the sake of Raise, but I guess it is instant Raise on a unit that is guaranteed to come back itself, so it's probably warranted. Actually, given Blade Grasp still apparently exists, even in a much degraded form, it's definitely warranted. This even if Wraith's only other "unique" ability is an MP damaging ability that is thus useless against other monsters and of dubious use otherwise. Still, at least one monster "had" to have an MP damage-only ability and Revenant seems like a good choice.

5. Revenant having Teleport 2 is a bit...weird. What? You thought I was going to say "overpowered"? Meh. I mean, having what's essentially a Fear ability as a unique close-range ability with that isn't exactly reassuring, but my "problem" with Teleport 2 has more become over the years the realization that it's basically utterly redundant to regular Teleport. I mean, you would and can basically achieve the same thing with Teleport and a large amount of Move as you can with Teleport 2. Still, it's not like we're currently in need of Movement space when so many Movements are currently either outright useless or easily made redundant, so this is a pointless tangent at present.

6. There's not much else to say about Revenants besides aside from openly wondering why they got Teleport 2 instead of just regular Teleport in a more general sense. Care to elucidate?

1. The masochist in me is a bit sad to see that these aren't going to be murder machines they are in Journey of the Five. That same part realizes how good Kiss is or at least can be, however, and the fact that Lamias easily have one of the better Beastmaster abilities. I'll admit I'm surprised they have Cannot Enter Water instead of something else though.

2. I have to wonder just how varied and random the debuffs from Slap are. That's about my only comment on the Class C Lamia outside of it being vaguely nice to see some monster have Distribute even if it isn't a monster with some type of healing otherwise and a monster that completely lacks any elemental absorption.

3. Liliths already seem like one of the better monsters just due to free, instant Veil, even if they're utterly mediocre-at-best against ??? units otherwise and even if Brave UP is...Brave UP. Other than that, it's nice to see someone finally use Dark Hurricane (as a generic monster ability).

4. So your Class A Lamia is called Lamia Queen? Interesting, though again not really surprising. I find it more interesting that all of the Lamias got stuck with the some of the weakest Reactions and yet you went out of way to make sure that they still got put to good use; I'd say that Faith UP is more underrated than all that weak though, especially since it seems to go by MP use rather than actual Faith use (unless you've fixed that).

5. It's also interesting to note that Night is "one of the few instances of AoE Sleep the player can acquire." I had been assuming that Sleep the spell still had AoE, even with Mimic Daravon no longer available for generic use. Hunh.

6. My only other comment on Lamia Queen is a question: Does Poison Frog have any range? Or is it a close-range ability only despite being Faith-based?

1. Oh, good. You're also calling them Aevises. That makes me feel better about using that instead of Avions even if Aevises is still a bit...odd.

2. I just realized that with Ahrimans/Ahrimen/Ahrimani no longer generic monsters and Dragons & Hydras currently not figured out, these are the only monsters whose entire family can Fly. Hmm...not sure how I feel that combined with their massive evasion, range and Move.

3. Speaking of quite good monsters, Jura Aevis might be the best one yet, at least for players, between having the only ability that can hit anywhere on screen and having an instant, permanent buff that doubles as an unavoidable debuff for the aforementioned ability. That the A.I. will probably only view Float as a buff and thus use it accordingly if it uses at all is part of the problem I always think of whenever anyone brings up the idea of making Float Weak to Wind. Having Speed Save is just icing on the cake.

4. I'll admit that I'm surprised you used "Jura Aevis" for the generic monster and didn't save it for the Demi-Mark given where that name comes from. Even if "Jura Aevis" is obviously what mistranslated name in vanilla is supposed to be, it's just a bit odd to see on a non-boss enemy after all these years.

5. I can't say I like Roost fully restoring HP at all. It just seems too easy to have a Steelhawk set up shop as distraction bait after mass-Hasting with Agility that way, especially with Arrow Guard, 6 Move and no weaknesses even if it has no immunities to any negative status. I mean, I'm sure it's supposed to be that way, but full HP, instant restoration just seems too much. Speaking of its 6 Move though, it's currently listed as 5 Move in the actual stats, so I'm not sure whether you actually reduced it & the "6 Move" is an artefact/artifact or if it's just a typo in the stat section.

6. I don't really have any comment on Cockatrice save for saying the obvious in that their abilities have good synergy but I still fear that the A.I. won't act half of the time after it makes itself Transparent.

1. Hmmm...yeah, my Tonberies still suck and are by far the weakest of everyone's, partly because I'm still resistant to giving them potentially instant kill or Shock-like abilities unlike everyone else. I am a bit surprised that you let Knife have the potential of instant death since it gets around the rather preventative nature of the patch as a whole and A.I. tends to blunder towards its enemy even when it really shouldn't. Still, you did give them rather abysmal Move & Jump and no status immunities, so that helps mitigate things I suppose, especially since it doesn't say that Knife is unavoidable like it usually is.

2. Despite having just commented on it above, I can't say that I like Stalk adding Vanish/Transparent due to how the A.I. tends to (not) act while under its effects. It would be shame to have all of the potential power Tonberry has go to waste on the A.I. side.

3. Actually, I don't have much else to say about your Tonberries currently, so this will be the shortest entry of the bunch. I do like how they have mostly Movement abilities innately, even if it's a shame to see Move on Lava have to be one of them given Lava is only on one map. I'd probably kvetch about Ignore Height being kind of a waste too when you could just give them high Jump, but it somewhat fits on them, so I won't.

1. My, all that innate status makes these easily the most vexing versions of turtles I've seen yet far. Still, they have pretty interesting variation given that everyone else, including myself, just tends to go with the "turtles are all physical tanks" approach. I also generally like your names better. It is a bit odd, however, to just now get back to a monster that Absorbs an element at all and still has no weakness on top of that.

2. That said, Adamantoise the Class C monster and Mistoise having Protect and Shell respectively, while it makes sense, seems a bit redundant. Similarly, isn't Steelguard nigh pointless on Adamantoise since it has 0% evasion itself? At least Mediguard adds Regen in addition to Defending, so Mistoise is fine there.

3. Shaolong Gui having such decent evasion alongside instant Wall, permanent Regen and self-healing seems a bit...much, at least compared to other turtles. This even if it is the most vulnerable to being Poisoned because of how Always: Regen backfires in that regard.

1. At least we come to the monster type I'm generally least excited about and the ideas here are...more than decent. Universal immunity to Silence seems rather weird though when it doesn't look like anyone but Weremage would actually need it. I'm guessing it's there for a reason though.

2. Werewolf the Class C monster looks rather...obnoxious if you don't block Berserk, especially since Berserk is infinite. Does Hamedo still completely negate the would-be attack too? If so, then, yeah, these might be a tad overpowered.

3. Oh, so Weremage is where Demi went. Not really much else to say except that it's nice to see a magical take on Werewolf "finally" even if I still have no interest in using Werewolves myself and even if the name & having access to Demi make think of them with Time Mage's silly Triangle Hats.

4. While Werewolf Overlord's Howl also seems rather obnoxious, it doesn't seem like it's unfair obnoxious like regular Werewolf's...aggregate abilities are. It just seems really good in a lot of situations, especially since it's enemy-only. Other than that, I'm guessing that Blitz is much like the FFT:A ability of the same name and is just an attack (with potential recoil?) that does a lot of damage to a single-target. Is this correct?

1. Hmm...it's rather weird to see Bad Breath still around but exclusive to only one of the Malboros. Not sure how I feel about that to be honest even if I understand it due to how powerful Bad Breath can be.

2. Similarly, I'm not sure how I feel about Malboros being simple Poison-bots, but I can't say that it doesn't work. It's just going to take some adjustment.

3. I generally like the abilities that Ochu has, though Ochu Dance, even knowing what it comes from, is a bit odd to me--it's the Dark elemental part, which I'm assuming is there primarily for ??? units. I was also going to say that "it being mid-charged is impossible with Non-Charge" before remembering that Non-Charge doesn't affect anything that Perseveres, not just Song and Dance. At least, I vaguely recall that it doesn't--it's been quite a while since I tested that too. Then again, Ochu Dance is, well, a Dance of sorts and it's not like you couldn't just one of Song or Dance's spots if you really needed to since Performer is actually using Samurai's old spots.

4. Great Malboros are...odd, mostly just due to Malboros Spores being there pretty much "just because". I have to wonder how the A.I. will act with that not being a Monster Skill too and if it will actually be dumb enough to use it on non-Malboro allies, especially if it has nothing better to do. Hmmm.... It could be interesting, but for all the wrong reasons. Regardless, this being immune to all debuffs seems a lot fairer than the current form of Foobar being so, but we'll get to that in a minute; Great Malboro having the extremely weak Catch as its reaction helps.

1. I see what you meant about not doing elemental Flans. I'm guessing these were more how Flans generally were in FFXIII, which is interesting I suppose, though I know for a fact that Foobars are from FFXII, at least first. We'll talk Foobars last though.

2. Due to how narrow a status Silence is unless you're changing it, I could see Slime getting away with potentially causing some other status as well. Shrug.

3. I see that your regular Flans are sort of like my Iced Flan despite the fact that if yours were elemental, then these ones would doubtless be Lightning-elemental like my Shock Jelly given its attack names. Constant Regen may be a bit much instead of just Regenerator (assuming that even still exists), but since this thing isn't immune to Poison and only gets Regen the skill as Beastmaster Skill, it's arguably a weakness....

4. Flanitor seems a lot fairer than I was expecting to be honest, primarily due to it lacking a revival ability and not having MA Save with what seems essentially like Murasame. I was going say that Reraise with Dragon Spirit seemed a bit much...but then I remembered I was reluctantly doing the exactly same thing with my own Dragons currently which are far more offense-oriented. So carry on in that regard.

5. Foobar on the other hand...holy crap do these things seem annoyingly overpowered from a glance. Granted, they're more overpowered on a defensive side than the offensive side like I think normal Werewolves are, but given they're all about attrition through Poison anyway.... To be specific, what's overpowering to me is primarily how they have MP Switch in addition to instant Reflect, instant large-AoE "very accurate" Poison, immunity to all debuffs and the Flan standard Always: Protect with Defense UP combo. I just think that MP Switch is way overkill and should remain unique to Hemogoblin, where it actually fits besides, but that may just be me. Shrug.

Regardless, it is nice to see someone else using Foobars, especially since it's a such a funny name. I'm using them as well, but there are several reasons that I kept mine as the secretive, non-generic enemy that they always were. I'm assuming that these are at least not all that common even if they aren't trapped in the Deep Dungeon like Tonberry Shades. Is that correct?

All that aside, I can't really say much to help with Dragons or Hydras unfortunately should you actually need help in that department. I imagine you're having opposite problems with them, though. Dragons are so generic and widespread in fantasy everything that it's easy to come up with anything for them and have it fit, even with Dragoner abilities still around. Meanwhile Hydras have something of the opposite problem since they're far less common for inspiration, they "have" to have tri-directional abilities to take advantage of their sprite and at the same time they almost mandate being better versions of Dragons because of it; the latter is part of the reason why they too are no longer a normal monster for me.

Good luck.

Oh, so the old "gift guilt" thing. Say no more.

Interesting to know you're Brazilian. I wouldn't have guessed considering you type English better than most of my fellow Americans.

Now that I actually have time to reply to your post, I shall!

Generic Monsters:

As of now, evasion is frontal still, but I'd like to make it global.

Monster stats will be roughly the same- which is why you don't see monsters with any damaging human spells aside from Fire on the Bombs, since it'd be ridiculously overpowered.

Blue Magic won't be pointed out in game. Rather, there will be hints spread throughout the game either in the form of Sage Knowledge entries or unit quotes.

Chocobos:

Chocobo Cure/Shield likely won't target the user to cut down on them being frustrating encounters early on. That said, they're still tankier than their Vanilla counterparts, so it's not like they'll fall over dead from a slight breeze.

Goblins:

Goblin Punch ensures that they won't be walled by anything- they just need to take a bit of (inevitable) damage first.

MP Switch is how it functions in Vanilla.

Bombs:

I'm unsure of how exactly I want to handle that aspect of Imperil. I need to confer with how FFM handles it in Arena since I wholly intend to snag his ASM that he used for that. :P

Self-Destruct is Non-Elemental. I didn't want it to be walled by anything, potentially.

Doom and Reraise will cancel each other out. They are, afterall, both time-based effects in regard to life.

Panthers:

Panthers are meant to be annoying distractions to be used against the AI and to annoy you in turn. They're not meant for heavy damage or to be great at debuffing. They're just there to take some of the enmity off of other units.

Jinx will inflict a random debuff when physically attacked by an adjacent unit, and is still potent, but the list of debuffs it inflicts has been reduced. No more Frog, Death, Doom, or Petrify on the Jinx list!

Piscodaemons:

Most R/S/M skills have new names in PW, I just used their old names for clarity here.

Torrent can, indeed, hit the user.

Mind Blast is going to be Confuse OR Berserk.

Skeletons:

The cost of immortality is unreliability. Therefore, them reviving is completely random. I think it'd be too annoying to fight them if they came back every 3 turns after death like clockwork.

As far as Dark goes, remember that I'm trying to build synergy between Necromancers and Undead units. And it just so happens that Necromancers use Dark Elemental magic. To that end, an Undead army lead by a Necromancer can be very deadly.

Sandstorm was dual element at one point in time, but I figure that they get walled by enough things and decided to throw them a bone.

Undead being unable to do much against other Undead was also planned. I like them being compliments of each other.

Ghosts:

Death can also heal Undead, and it's actually on them to be -intended- to be used on themselves and their allies. Granted, it also makes them very potent weapons, allowing them to fill either role based on the party. Ectoplasm is there to actually Undeadify the party as well, if the player should want to go that route. Undead army ahoy! Remember- Ghosts are Support, Skeletons are Offense.

Teleport II is the Revenant's gimmick to set it apart from the others. And remember, in PW 2.0, Teleport will fail if you intend to move beyond your Move.

Lamias:

Poison Frog has 3 Range.

Aevises:

Float being a double-edged sword is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Fly in, Floatify the entire enemy party, fly back and snipe 'em all with Wind skills. Takes a bit of setup, but it'll be soooo worth it. Aevises are, in general, all about setup. That's their gimmick compared to Chocobos.

Speed Save is +25 CT on hit, just like Arena. Quickening is literally the only +Speed skill left in the game.

Roost's HP Recovery is still up in the air. I'm not sold on 100% yet, so it'll likely change a million times during development.

I think it'll likely be 6 Move in the end.

Tonberries:

Anything with Vanish attached to it likely won't be used by the AI and will be for player use only.

Adamantoises:

Adamantoises will likely gain two elemental weaknesses in the future just to balance out their tankiness, likely Water and Wind. They may also become less tanky in the future if I find them to be too turtle-ish.

Steelguard is meant to support allies- it sends every ally within 2 AoE of it into Defending status.

Werewolves:

Their Beastmaster skill (and Howl) are affected by Silence.

Yes, Hamedo still blocks the attack. That said, the trick is getting the Werewolf in range unscathed and then having Taunt land and then having Hamedo activate. There's a lot of what-ifs with them that stops them from being too overpowered.

Blitz is basically Spin Fist- it deals physical damage to units within 2 AoE of the user.

Flans:

Foobars, Darksteels, and Tonberry Shades are DD only.

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

Like I said before, I don't mind waiting given how long my posts tend to be, especially now that I've made you wait such a while:

1. I see. Understandable on both fronts.

2. Oh, so monsters stats are still generally greater than humans. That makes some of the Beastmaster Skills more impressive then, particularly Bombs'.

3. I'm fine with Blue Magic(k) not being explicitly pointed out. In fact, I prefer it. Regardless, thanks for the direct answer as always.

I suppose it's more understandable that neither Choco Cure nor Choco Shield might not target the user if monsters are keeping their greater-than-human stats and growth. It will just take some adjustment as many things in this patch will, but, hey, that's part of the deal with patches. Otherwise we'd all just be making slightly different versions of vanilla that were extremely limited in what they could actually change.

1. I'm still dubious about their reliance on having to be damaged for offense, but we'll see how Goblin Punch fairs for them then.

2. I can't say I'm all that happy to hear that MP Switch is the exact same, but at least I know now.

1. Now that FFMaster is back, I'm going to assume you've asked him by now. I was going to offer to try to answer the question since it seemed like I had talked to him about that specific Oil hack more than most other people had, but it's a moot point now.

2. That's understandable about Self-Destruct. It's just something I never can decide on myself since it "makes sense" for it to be Fire element.

3. I'm glad to hear that Doom and Reraise formally and immediately cancel each other out. It still bugs me that this isn't the case from the get-go as far as vanilla is concerned. Then again, as much as we all like vanilla, we all know how horribly flawed it was in a lot of its mechanical aspects.

1. Oh, I can understand them being meant to lure away attacks or outright "tank" attacks through evasion. I was just pointing out that their ways of achieving that generally seemed limited to doing the exact same thing in only slightly different ways, which is made even more problematic by monsters still having rather limited ability space in your patch. We'll see if it works though, especially if monster evasion is still currently only from the front.

2. Okay, thanks for the reminder. Good to hear that Jinx is (way) more balanced even if I didn't suffer from its 1.0 version.

1. Okay, good to know.

2. Good to have what I suspected about Torrent confirmed.

3. Thank you for that small mercy as far Mind Blast is concerned.

1. It's good to know that the Undead don't come back like clockwork. It is indeed rather annoying at very least and often rather lethal, especially if there are more Always: Undead units on the map than the five units (or less) you have as the player. Thank you for that decision.

2. Oh, I've realized the synergy between Necromancer and the Undead monsters. I'm just a bit surprised that none of the Skeletons can heal themselves since that's always been the case in both vanilla and all subsequent patches of it. Then again, that just helps your patch stand out more, so it was just an interesting revelation.

3. I'm going to ignore that wonderfully horrible pun and just say that I sadly understand that temptation. Too bad it's just not feasible to multi-elemental stuff with the way elemental stuff currently works.

4. I see. That makes sense really. I just worry it might have some battles end up being "unwinnable" if the player comes in with a certain set-up with an "Undead army". Then again, that's most likely the player's own damn fault, so it's (probably) not a huge deal.

1. I can't remember how actively the A.I. will try to use Death to heal itself. I just know that even "friendly" uses of Death are unfortunately still vulnerable to "dodging", though I guess that matters less with monsters who will currently never have access to M-EV.

2. My comment on Teleport II vs. Teleport was merely my stating how Teleport II is, in reality, just a superfluous version of Teleport. On units that you would want to give Teleport II, you can just give them high enough Move alongside Teleport that they effectively have Teleport II anyway. That's all. It's not a huge deal since Movement is easily the part of the RSM space that has most room from already useless stuff, so actually using Teleport II isn't a "waste" or anything presently.

*looks at Move on Lava and Any Ground*

I...see. Hmmm...I'm not sure how I feel about Poison Frog having such range, but at least that's the deadliest thing about your Lamia compared to Jot5's "pray for death" versions.

1. I wouldn't go as far as to say that Jura Aevis having such great synergy between its techniques "justifies" Float now being Weak to Wind to me. That said, I do still appreciate the obvious amount of thought that went into said set-up.

2. That's good to know about Speed Save.

3. I think 50% HP recovery will be fine and, no, not (just) because that's the amount that Roost in Pokemon recovers. Given that 50% HP recovery is what you're using for Bomblet, it seems like that should be fine, even if you may feel that reducing by "that much" merits adding some type of positive status like Regen or Protect or something. I'm not trying to put words--well, feelings--in your mouth or anything though. I'm just saying that you might feel that way given that Bomblet adds Reraise.

4. Okay. 6 Move sounds fine I suppose so long as Roost isn't full HP healing.

It's good to know that's officially the case, even if it doesn't make me feel much better about Vanish/Transparent as a whole.

1. I see. Two elemental weaknesses might be a bit much compared to how you're handling other monsters. Even if that happened, they'd likely still have the sturdiness to withstand suchs weaknesses even if you're keeping Weak: Element at double damage.

2. Good to know about Steelguard, though I'll note that in the ability thread, you currently have Steelguard listed as AoE 3.

1. Hunh. Interesting to know they're affected about Silence, though I wonder if the A.I. will go out of its way to inflict Silence on Werewolves.

2. I don't think there's as many "what-ifs" about the situation with Hamedo as you seem to think, but it's pointless debating about it since it is based around "what-ifs". I guess we'll see if it's as overpowered as I think it will be when you release this.

3. Okay, good to know about Blitz.

Oh, so Foobars are Deep Dungeon-only. Thank gods, especially after the relevation that MP Switch is the exactly same from vanilla.

I'm not sure what Darksteels are, but I figure there's no point in asking if it's not a generic monster.

Any luck with thinking about generic Dragons or Hydras yet?

P.S. For some reason I keep thinking that Archeoaevis was named Jura Aevis. That's what I was rambling about in the first thing under Aevises that you replied to in my last post.

« Last Edit: June 15, 2015, 10:44:20 PM by The Damned »

"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts." - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"